Are you an insurance form hero?

Chapter 1

Introduction

User experience expert and ecommerce consultant James Gurd examines four home insurance companies and their quote processes, and provides a detailed analysis that will help insurance companies optimise their forms. 

Insurance is a highly competitive industry, with heritage brands like Aviva and Admiral, big aggregators like Compare The Market and new entrants like Lemonade and Homelyfe.

Historically, online quote processes have involved lengthy, poorly optimised user flows and big brands have been slow to adapt to the digital world. Research from Formisimo shows that many insurance companies fail to provide a fully optimised mobile form experience, with limited use of mobile-friendly keyboards on sites like RAC, Co-Op and Quote Me Happy (Aviva). With around 4 million UK adults accessing the Internet only on mobile devices, form optimisation for insurance quotes is a critical requirement.

According to Capgemini’s World insurance report, 30% of people globally would buy an insurance product from a big tech provider like Amazon or Google rather than a heritage insurance brand, due to poor CX from existing players. In 2017, Amazon started employing insurance professionals for a supposed European market disruptor. Whilst nothing as yet has been launched, it’s a signal that the retail giant has recognised the market potential. It’s imperative that incumbents provide a high-quality online user experience across devices because this is something a disruptor like Amazon brings by default.

For this report, I’ve run a comparison for a home insurance new customer user journey on four insurance websites:

1. Aviva
2. Admiral
3. Lemonade
4. Homelyfe

In the Google Trends chart below, you can see the level of global search interest in each brand’s home insurance. Homelyfe volumes are too small to be displayed but I’ve included it in the analysis, as a relatively new brand, to compare how it uses digital vs. heritage brands that have a reputation for cumbersome online experiences.